Remembering The Hero Who Took LSD And Saved A Dog From A Fire

He might not have worn a cape, but last year there was a moment of inspirational heroism that deserves revisiting.

An American man broke into his neighbour's house to save their family dog from a fire in October 2016.

"What an absolute legend," I hear you say. Well not quite, it eventually transpired that there was no fire and he was just tripping balls.

Police said they found 43-year-old Michael Orchard standing heroically with a dog in his arms outside of what he thought was a giant inferno.

However, the Halfmoon, New York resident was on a mixture of LSD and cough medicine. It turned out that he was just hallucinating when he thought he was risking his life to save the pup.

"He believed that the residence was on fire. And he was rescuing the dog," said Trooper Mark Cepiel, Troop G Spokesperson at the time.

According to local news, neighbours said Orchard went around the neighbourhood banging on doors yelling about a fire. But since no one would help, because there was no fire, the animal lover took matters into his own hands.

He allegedly drove his black BMW Sedan through the fence before smashing through the back door of his neighbour's house to save the family's large white dog.

Orchard was charged with second degree burglary and third degree criminal mischief and put in county jail on $15,000 bail. However, luckily he managed to avoid drug charges.

via GIPHY

"He drove over yards and through the fence. At no point was he on the roadway. And no illegal substances were found in his possession," said Cepiel.

Troopers say Orchard was very cooperative and the dog was unharmed.

LSD might now be more associated with hippies and crusties than it is than the armed forces, but believe it or not there was a time when acid was being dropped in places a world apart from the psytrance tent at Boomtown.

In an experiment conducted in 1963, a crew of British soldiers were given LSD as part of a morning drink while in the field.

You can watch what happened in this video...

Credit: Archive Footage

The government's 'Talk To Frank' website describes LSD (the chemical name, lysergic acid diethylamide) as: "A powerful hallucinogenic drug - this means that users are likely to experience a distorted view of objects and reality, including seeing and sometimes hearing things that aren't there (these are hallucinations)."

In 2006 MI6 paid out thousands to ex-servicemen for tests conducted in the 1950s and 60s such as the one featured above.

Topics: Dog, USA

James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday